Her death is almost certainly linked to her career-ending accident less than 18 months before, where she lost her right eye and suffered huge skull fractures after colliding with a stationary truck during a straight-line test session for the Marussia F1 Team at Duxford Aerodrome.

It is understood that de Villota’s personal assistant discovered her body at 7am when she tried to wake the Spanish racer up.

De Villota was visiting Seville to launch her autobiography, Life is a Gift, on Monday. She is survived by her 29-year-old husband, Rodrigo Garcia Millan, whom she recently wed.